Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Techniques To Improve The Vocabulary of The Studen PDF
Techniques To Improve The Vocabulary of The Studen PDF
1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
a
Corresponding author: pushpa.english@sathyabamauniversity.ac.in
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
5 Setting
Sathyabama University is a self-financing educational institute of great reputation,
where students from all over India study there for its best infrastructure and teaching
programs. English is introduced in the first semester of engineering in an eight-semester
course.
6 Sample description
The target population of the study are students of first year engineering in the age group
of seventeen to eighteen years. They have completed plus two or intermediate, an eligibility
examination for admission into engineering course in Tamil Nadu, India.
2
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
3
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
11 Materials
The materials are from a variety of sources (magazines, newspaper, articles etc) and
cover a wide range of topics of interest to university students (environment, profession,
science and technology).
4
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
12 Treatment
Reading plus Treatment (RP): The study follows the procedures suggested by
Paribhakth and Wesche, [10]. The experimental group (called RP treatment students) read
the selected texts and answered the accompanying comprehension questions in the class
and at home. In the next session, they did vocabulary exercises for a given text. The
students corrected these exercises by exchanging their work sheets. This correction helped
them to work with the words once more.
Reading only Treatment (RO): The control group were called RO group. In the RO
treatment students also read the main texts and answered accompanying comprehension
questions in the class, followed by correction. Instead of vocabulary exercises, however, a
short passage containing target words was dictated and the students asked to correct the
errors in it. In this way the students were exposed to target words again through reading
and again through subsequent completion of comprehension exercises.
13 Quantitative Analysis
An analysis of quantitative data obtained from the pre-test and the post-test is
presented here.
Administering the Pre Test and Post Test: The pre-test and post-test were
administered to both groups- Experimental and Control Groups. The Pre-test was
conducted to both groups of the initial study and the main study. The post test was also
administered to both groups in the two studies.
Analysis of the Scores: The pretest had five types of vocabulary tasks. The Post Test
had five types of vocabulary tasks. In both test each task carry ten marks. The total marks
for each test was 50. From the data analysis it was found that there were gains for both
groups but the gains for the experimental group were more.
Table1. The computations carried out was as follows: Mean. SD, CV and Z values
Group R P Pretest Posttest
Mean 52.39 61.73
STD 22.21 9.21
CV 42.39 14.93
Ztest 3.03
Group RO Pretest posttest
Mean 46.71 56.60
STD 12.73 7.68
CV 27.26 13.57
Ztest 5.19
14 Interpretation
The main hypothesis is given the same amount of time devoted to the two treatments,
gains for the reading plus vocabulary instruction strategy will be significant compared to
the Reading only strategy. From the above quantitative analysis it is clear that there is
consistent improvement in the performance level of Experimental group in both initial and
main studies. So it can be interpreted that reading plus focused vocabulary teaching is more
effective than the reading only strategy.
5
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
About 15 students were contacted to obtain personal, oral feedback almost all the
students found the materials, topics and the vocabulary exercises interesting.
•about 90% felt matching the word with meaning and multiple choice interesting.
•most of the students liked the tasks given in the class.
•students admitted that immediately repeating the words after reading, made them to
note new words in the note books in other subjects also.
•the students felt that they developed an interest in reading and vocabulary self-help
books.
•many students felt that the activities helped in speaking English in the class and 60%
admitted that they were motivated to improve their communicative skills by speaking
outside the classroom.
•some students said that the activities helped them pronounce words several times by
discussing with their friends and even helped in learning the spelling of some words,
especially changing one form into the other.
•40% of the students admitted to using the dictionary more after the classes.
The observers, who supported the investigator, started using the materials developed
by the scholar in their classes also. In their opinion such activities like repeating the words,
using dictionary, group work and pair work helped the students to even practice speaking in
the classroom. They found such activities useful as it helped the weak students to learn
more words in groups and even helped them to develop their strategies to learn new
vocabulary. The interaction in the class was useful and all the students learned not only
from the teacher but also from their classmates. Even the students helped the others in the
class. The strategy acted as an ice breaker as it helped the students in shedding their
inhibitions and created interaction among students from different areasThe study also
confirms to the findings of the study conducted by Evangeline JCK and Ganesh K. [5]
where it was found that the learners attention is more on scoring well in their technical
subjects than on mastering skills in writing. Since her study finds that lexical blocks create
writing difficulties, the study suggests repetition of words to improve the written skills of
the students.
15 Hypothesis evaluation
Assumption: Given the same amount of time devoted to the two treatments, there will be
significant gains in the Post test of the reading plus vocabulary instruction group (i.e.
Experimental group) compared to the post test of reading only group (i.e. Control group)
The main hypothesis is: Given the same amount of time devoted to the two treatments,
gains for the reading plus vocabulary instruction strategy will be significant compared to
the Reading only strategy.
Null Hypothesis: There will not be significant gains in the Posttest of Reading plus
vocabulary group (i.e. Experimental group) compared to the Pre- Test of Reading plus
vocabulary group (i.e. Experimental Group).The data collected from the students after the
study proved that the strategy used for the experimental group is significant. The study
proved that direct teaching of vocabulary by repeating seven times leads to better retention
as the students feedback proved that they learnt many words and improved their
communicative skills. Since both quantitative and qualitative analysis proved that the
strategy is effective and significant, the null hypothesis is rejected.
6
SHS Web of Conferences 26, 01139 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/ shsconf/20162601139
ERPA 2015
Acknowledgements : The authors wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the participants in the study from
Sathyabama University, and the respondents to the questionnaires.
References
1. Aitchison Jean., 'The Language Web the Power and Problem of Words'. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press (1997)
2. Aitchison, J., 'Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon’, second
edition, Oxford, Blackwell (1994)
3. Chaudhary., Survey for Ford Foundation. Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (2006)
4. Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S., Levels of processing: A framework for memory
research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior, 11, 671-684 (1972)
5. Evangeline JCK & Ganesh, The Trajectory of Technical Writing towards Students at
the Tertiary Level. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research vol 10/4 pp
9573-9580 (2015)
6. Jordan RR, English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book for Teachers.
CUP. Cambridge (1997)
7. India Skills Report, @ http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/career-how-india-will-
hire-and-get-hired-in-2015/20141223.htm (2015)
8. Nation, I.S.P., 'Teaching and Learning Vocabulary'. New York, Newburry House.
9. Neelakantam, M. (1992). 'An ESP course Design'. Unpublished Thesis. Anand. Sardar
Patel University (1990)
10. Paribakht, T.S. and M. Wesche., 'Vocabulary Enhancement Activities and Reading for
Meaning in Second Language Acofuisition. In Coady and Huckin (eds.), (1997). pp.
174-200 (1997)
11. Puja S Navin., ‘The Language of Success’ The Hindu , Chennai Edition, India (7th
March 2005)
12. Sarangi, K.S., 'Use of Lexical Compensatory Strategies in Adult Learners
Interlanguage'. Hyderabad, Unpublished Dissertation. CIEFL (1985)
13. Sripada, Pushpa Nagini, Teaching Collocations through Placement Training Materials:
A Trainer’s Perspectives. International Journal of Humanities Education. CG
Publications. Vol 12 , issue 3.4 pp. 11-23 (2015)
14. Striped, Pushpa Nagini, Mental Lexicon. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied
Psychology, January 2008, Vol. 34, No.1, 181-186 @
http://medind.nic.in/jak/t08/i1/jakt08i1p181.pdf (2008)
15. Millrood Radislav, Teaching heterogeneous classes retrieved on 25th May 2015 @
http://203.72.145.166/ELT/files/56-2-2.pdf (2002)